I am pretty sure, sadly, that this one is yet another scam, though better presented than most. The exact same ad appeared on our local Craigslist so I tried contacting the guy to check things out. I couldn't get a decent response to some very basic questions.

The listing was for a Viking Diamond for $2500, iirc. Unlike most such ads, there was a very well done photo of the machine with all its accessories carefully laid out. The "seller" gave his name as Alan Fitzgerald.

Maybe I was wrong, but I couldn't get him to tell me where he was located and there were some other warning flags in his emails. It is unfortunate that there are so many scams that we have to be ultra careful. If genuine, it would have made more sense for him to sell on ebay, and get more money, since he claimed to want to use their protection program to process the transaction.